Dominic West insists he never realised there was a pay gap with The Affair co-star Ruth Wilson
Ruth didnt believe she and Dominic were paid equally on The Affair (Photo by Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic)..
He argued that the pay gap should have fallen in favour of his co-star Ruth Wilson because she was the Golden Globe winner.
Nevertheless, Dominic West insists he never knew what The Affair actress Ruth was earning when she said she believed it wasnt equal.
The 49-year-old actor says her comments, which preceded her departure by around six months, opened his eyes to the disparity.
Dominic told Radio Times this week: I never asked what the money is on a show. It was more a question of if I wanted to do it. So it woke me up to the issue. I never realised the disparity and the injustice.
Ruth admitted that shed never spoken to Dominic about the pay gap because it was kind of hard to bring up when she shared her assumptions of a gap between their earnings.
She told the publication earlier this year: It needs to be an open discussion and men need to help us out.
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I dont want more money, I just want equal money. Which means men have to take less.
Yet when he found out, he did speak out against the alleged disparity – which she never complained to Showtime about – because he even felt like she deserved more many than him.
She should get paid more because she won a Golden Globe for the part, he told Channel 4 News.
There was absolutely no reason for her to get paid less than me, and thats part of what is being hopefully confronted now.
You cant get away with it anymore, and theres no reason why a producer should get away with that.
Ruth left The Affair in Season 4 but confirmed that pay did not come into her decision and instead she says she left the show for reasons shes not really allowed to talk about.
Dominic said the treatment of women in acting and directorial roles had taken a big step back in the past 20 years.
He said: Particularly in television, which has become more pornographic and the burden of that falls squarely on young women.
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Things like Game of Thrones, where you get a pair of bare breasts every five minutes… I mustnt say this, but Im fairly sure that 20 years ago young actresses would not have had pressure put on them to take their clothes off. The parts young actresses get, particularly pretty ones, involve violent rape.
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When I think about my daughter going into the profession… Im just really glad that #MeToo has started to counteract what has happened in the past 20 years.
He even said that he and Ruth regularly argued about their sex scenes, determined to get out of giving their own behind any more screen time.
We used to fight about it, he confessed. ”Youre on top this time”, “No! I was on top the last three times!”
The full interview is in this weeks Radio Times.
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